Remembrance
by Emesis
Summary: Chapter Seven Up. Beatrix and Steiner silently admit what they both knew already... The tale of Zidane and the search for his past amidst the false memories and constant violence of Gaia's windstorm of hate and destruction...
1. Vengeance

Remembrance

Zidane stood silently, looking across the huge expanse of nothingness which stretched endlessly across the desert.

He had eschewed contact with other people for months, now. Ever since his encounters with Necron, and the wisdom he had been given by the evil apparition, he had changed. No longer was he the happy-go-lucky teenager he had been before. He had since transformed into a melancholy being, drifting across the vast, bleak desert, contemplating life, it's meaning, it's purpose, what happened when it ended… 

Fratley hoisted up his spear and began his long journey. To where? He didn't know. He just had an urge, an urge to uncover the mystery of his past. He knew that he was a prince of Bulmecia, Freya had told him that, but he wanted to explore other lands, experience new sights and sounds…

Steiner and his men grimly grabbed their armor, and donned it quickly. "We're going to find Zidane" Steiner shouted harshly to his 'loyal, competent, and skilled' troupe of battle-hardened Knights of Pluto, to which in response they deadpanned "Yes, sir…" and began their long and tiresome journey.

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"Fratley?!" Freya shouted.

"Fratley!?"

"Where are you, Fratley?!"

The Dragoon searched all around Alexandria's courtyard, searching in vain for the man she had shared so much with.

  


"Dammit! Fratley, where are you?!"

Freya knew that Fratley, even though he was once an expert warrior, would not survive long in the harsh wilderness.

If something happened to Fratley, then she just couldn't forgive herself…

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Kuja, too, strode silently across the searing hot desert, seeking only one thing: Revenge. After the disaster at Iifa Tree, his insanity had lapsed momentarily… But then returned in full force.

Kuja saw a small, defenseless desert lizard.

He brought his boots down upon it, crushing it and allowing his tears of anger and confusion to float down to its cold corpse…

Revenge would be his, he decided, and continued his hopeless march to find and annihilate the ones who had caused him pain.

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What is this? Kuja wondered as he held the oddly shaped staff in his hands. Weak and battered, Kuja had found the unusual wand in the sand, and, thinking it held some kind of magic, attempted to call up food and water with it. 

He waved the wand in the air and spoke the arcane words of power, which prompted no reaction from the old, scratched staff.

The Genome held the frail stick in his arm, and threw it far away, then began to continue his walk towards retribution, but no sooner had the weapon fell to the ground, it had returned to his hand. Maybe it had a use after all… Kuja thought. He strapped the newfound treasure to his back, and continued his journey. Suddenly, he had a vague idea as to where his nemesis was, and instinctively followed this strange beacon towards his ultimate destiny and triumph.

Remembrance cackled inside of its wooden prison. Perhaps this Genome with delusions of grandeur would be entertaining…


	2. Friends and Enemies

Remembrance

Garnet sat in her lonely tower, thinking of the man who had abruptly left her so many months ago. Why did he have to go and do something so stupid? She thought. A few lone tears fell from her face, but she had begun to build up a resistance against pain, developing a hard, cold shell…

Beatrix walked suddenly up to the princess and put her hand on her shoulder. "Thinking of Zidane again?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

The lady knight sighed. "That's all you ever think of Garnet. I think you might just have to accept…" Beatrix was cut off abruptly by Garnet's thunderous reply of "No!" and a door being slammed in the warrior's face.

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Kuja was continuing his slow march across the lifeless wilderness when he sensed something in one of the hottest regions of the desert. Without hesitation he sped off on unholy wings to where he knew his archenemy lay, ignoring the blistering heat of the region.

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Zidane plodded stoically through the barren desert, trying to overlook the heat but failing completely. Finally he let out an exasperated cry and fell to the ground, sure of his defeat.

Kuja felt his enemy's life force diminish. He would have to get there fast, or he wouldn't have a chance to indulge himself in Zidane's grisly demise. "Dammit, the desert won't get him. I will. I swear it" Kuja thought to himself, laughing.

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"Princess, please!" Beatrix yelled to the depressed woman. "You need to forget him!" 

"No! Not until I have proof he's dead!"

Beatrix had an interesting plan, but she had to be completely sure that it would work.

"If we do find proof… Will you move on?" Beatrix shouted in reply.

A few minutes which seemed like an eternity of silence past.

"…Yes, I will." Garnet lied.

"Hmph… Then I shall accompany you on a rescue mission for Zidane, princess." 

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Zidane felt himself start to depart the world, and thought that it might be all for the better. Heaven, or Hell, or whatever void was beyond this mortal coil, would be better than the vortex of fear and hate which was Gaia.

Kuja, now having a close proximity to his brother, began to sense his thoughts. "Zidane, do you want to die!?" Kuja exclaimed.

Zidane looked up at his brother in disbelief. "Kuja, you… you're alive! Brother!" The Genome almost got up to embrace his brother, but he noticed instantly that something was wrong. Kuja had quickly unsheathed a vicious rapier, and was wielding it menacingly. "Hahahaha! Look at the fear in your eyes, Zidane!" Kuja cried shrilly. "I've wanted to kill you for so long…" Kuja teleported away.

Zidane looked around and figured he was safe, so he got up with the renewed strength awarded to him by adrenaline and continued his journey.

Then Kuja, out of nowhere, teleporting ten yards away from Zidane's side and holding out his ferocious rapier, slashing the man in his unguarded stomach with the fierce blade as he flew towards his enemy. Zidane peacefully fell from the air he had been flung into by the vicious attack, and stayed on the burning ground, unmoving.

Kuja laughed and teleported away once again.

Zidane now felt like he was really, beyond a doubt, going to die. He felt the hot blood burning all around his body, and gave up all hope.

It was then that someone came to him, looking like an angel of mercy in Zidane's moment of utmost need. For a moment Zidane thought that it was Kuja, but this person looked nothing like his arch-rival in any way.

Fratley, amnesiac Dragon Knight, picked Zidane up and went ahead on his way, holding the unconscious Genome in his arms.


	3. Lost Again

Remembrance  
  
Fratley felt the sandman's claws tear greedily at his face, causing a massive shock of pain on his forehead.   
The pain-loving, flesh-eating monsters had ambushed them some time ago, while Fratley was tending to  
Zidane's wounds and Zidane was asleep. The evil creatures had burst out of the sand, spraying the painful  
crushed rock into the Burmecian's brown rodent eyes. He had quickly gone into melee mode, bringing up  
his razor sharp spear, stabbing one of the gauze-covered, hissing sandmen directly in the heart, bringing a   
spray of crimson into the air and ending its worthless life. However, after the beginning bloodshed, the battle  
took on a rythym, and became methodical. It was obvious that Fratley was going to be slain by the   
unrelenting monsters' attacks, though he figured he could hold out a long time...  
  
But now it was do or die. The decision was to continue fighting and prolong life, then suffer slow death, or take  
the daring risk and run for his life.  
  
Fratley chose to run.  
  
The dragoon started running, and as he was moving, slashed his spear against one creature's face, bringing forth  
a gush of black, foul blood. He continued running randomly, allowing the bloodthirsty monsters to follow him,   
gibbering and howling with insane bloodlust.  
  
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Zidane awoke in the desert once more, thinking that perhaps this catastrophe was all a dream,   
that Garnet's beautiful eyes would greet him, and then she would comfort him, tell him it was   
just a nightmare...  
  
But the reality of the situation came crashing into Zidane, making the pain on his face from   
the stinging sand seem more real than reality itself...  
  
At least I'm not dying, he thought.   
  
But deep in the recesses of his mind, death seemed like a comforting, soothing alternative to   
Gaia's surging windstorm of pain and bloodshed.  
  
----------------------------------------------------  
  
"Hmmm." Beatrix said as she examined the dagger on the ground. "I think I remember this dagger.  
I've seen Zidane hold it before." Garnet's eyes brightened considerably at this reassuring  
news, and she wrapped Beatrix in a tight hug on an impulse. "So you think he was near here?"  
"Yes Princess, I believe she was." Garnet smiled, filled with indescribable joy. "Is there any  
way to tell which way he's going?" Beatrix frowned and replied "No, there's not... But let's  
just head West. There is a small village near there, and knowing Zidane, he's probably there.  
Perhaps, no, probably drunk."  
  
After a few hours of searching, Garnet stopped and started crying quietly. Beatrix, noticing  
her companion's distress, asked her what was wrong. Garnet simply pointed to the ground in  
front of her, and Beatrix too gasped and involuntarily shivered, horrified.  
  
It was a bloodstain.  
  
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Steiner and his "mighty" Pluto Knights, meanwhile, were in quite a bit of trouble. The   
ingenious knights, upon finding a huge tree blocking their only passway through a canyon,  
attempted to knock it down using their admittedly powerful(and extremely thick-skulled)  
heads, instead of using the nearby ledge to simply climb up and climb down on the other  
side. After hours of headbanging, and having made dents which, added together in depth,  
had a grand total of around two inches, they finally figured out that they should indeed  
climb the tree instead of trying to knock it down. Steiner, leading the way, started his  
mad climb up the tree. Halfway up he stopped to scratch an insatiable itch and fell down,   
crushing his poor companions.  
  
"Hey Hey Heyo!" Old Gummery yelled, throwing bread out to the pigeons and mumbling about  
the price of coffee. "Ye old boys, what are ye doing?!"  
"We're sitting on the ground in severe pain"  
"Oh, oh, oh, yes I see. Well, instead of attempting to climb that there tree, why not just  
get on top of the ledge, and then climb back down?"  
Steiner lifted his head from beneath the pile. "Absolutely not! Climbing that ledge would  
be honorless!"  
  
After hours of arguing, the old, crazy man had finally convinced Steiner that climbing  
a ledge was not, indeed, against the ancient tenents of honor, the exhausted men climbed  
over the rock and saw in the distance Toppad's Nest, a small village existing in an oasis  
amidst the dry desert.  
  
~End~  
  
Okay, I feel good about this chapter, but Microsoft Word has recently stopped working, so I  
probably won't be able to type as high-quality because Wordpad doesn't have that lovely  
thesaurus. :P However, I like this chapter because it doesn't seem as rushed as the others.  
Not sure if I like the lighthearted Steiner bit though... 


	4. Insanity

Remembrance

As he stood in the lifeless desert, Zidane sighed. Lost once more, he thought.

Then something came to him.

He remembered how Kuja and Necron had cared for him when he was injured, at a time like this...

What was he thinking? He didn't recall anything like that ever happening. Kuja had always been Zidane' rival, even when they were small children...

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Zidane and Kuja, no more than five, were enjoying their childhood, playing a lively game of "Heroes and Villains".

"Slash slash!" the young, blond Genome shouted as he pantomimed slaying his brother with a wooden stick. Kuja, a rather frail child, fell to the ground and had a small, yet painful slash of crimson across his arm.

"Oh, sorry Kuja!"

The silver-haired child remained on the floor, his gaze downwards.

"Someday... Someday I'm gonna be the best. Sometime I'll win this game. And when that time comes, it's for keeps."

Zidane stared at his brother, awed at his ranting brother's peculiar behavior.

"Promise me Zidane. Promise me, when we grow up, that we will do this again, for real."

"What?"

"Promise me."

"A-Alright, Kuja, I promise. One day I'll fight you. And I'll win"

Kuja got up from his prone position and walked off, saying nothing.

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"But how did I remember that?" Zidane said, talking to no one but himself and the ever-listening audience of the wind and sand. "I have no memories of a past with Kuja..."

The dim memory, the falsification in the back of his mind, began to grow. Days passed, and soon Zidane was utterly under this mysterious phenomenon's power. Regularly now, the memories, produced by some unkown source, came into his mind, but there was something in his subconscious that prevented him from fully acknowlwedging them as truth. The memories sought to erase this. Frequently Zidane felt the battle being waged inside his head, the few rebels, the tiny light in his mind holding memories of the past, being bombarded by the vicious, ryhtmic assaults of the new, evil memories.

He saw tiny lights in the village ahead, and for a reason not entirely in his realm of understanding, began a slow plod towards it.

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Following the tracks was exhilirating and heartbreaking at the same time. 

Garnet and Beatrix, overyjoyed at finding Zidane's light footprints, began following them. They didn't know what to think as they saw the strange, ratlike tracks which later accompanied the Genome's footprints. However, they did occasionally find odd things:Dead, yet oddly uneaten desert animals, places where birds refused to fly, areas where the sand was dark as ebony...

Then Garnet found signs of a scuffle in the sand, and the obviously-swiftly-made tracks of the wanderer who had accompanied Zidane, followed by the monstrous feet of the sandmen. She, having begun developing a resistance to outwardly showing her pain, cried within her soul.

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Zidane felt his knife slid into the man's eye, bringing forth a river of bloodshed. The light in his mind didn't know why he was doing this, but he had an overwhelming desire for revenge upon those who had wronged him. 

He had horrible memories, memories of these people falsely accusing him, stealing from him, shooting at him with arrows, and even trying to hang him once, for no reason at all.

His eyes burned with insurmountable hatred for those who had sinned against Him, master of all Gaia.

Children, the elderly, the sick, the unarmed, the fleeing, all fell before his insane wrath as he slashed through them like a farmer cutting wheat.

Vomitting on the ground, the tiny part of his mind that was still sane, disgusted at this terrible, pointless tragedy, started to fight back with a renewed vigor. No... he said in his mind, at first a small whisper, then escalating into a crazy shout, until finally he screamed, feeling as if his lungs would burst from the wrongness of it all, "NO!!!"

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Garnet reached forward, trying to comfort her seemingly-comatose long lost lover, her delicate, feminine face wet with salty tears, but Beatrix held her back. Only Zidane and Beatrix understood that this was Zidane's battle, that no one else could fight it for him, or even offer the smallest amount of help.

Zidane suffered in silence.


	5. The Illusion

Remembrance

"Do you think he'll be okay, Doctor Tot?" Garnet asked hopefully.

"Princess, I'm sorry, but now there's really no way to tell. I think we should just leave him alone and let him figure this out on his own."

Garnet looked at Zidane, lying on a bed in the airship's luscious, warm accommodations. She noticed that he was shivering immensely. "You're going to make it through this, Zidane." she said softly, so only herself and the unconscious man could hear.

Somehow, she knew he was listening.

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Zidane found himself hiding, curled up in the fetal position, in a dark space.

A massive ball of dark light zoomed towards him, holding the falsifications which had been presented to him in his delirium amidst the harsh desert sands.

He brought forth the iota of light which represented his failing true memories, and began his hopeless battle against the darkness.

The evil presence brought forth thousands of tiny Hells-Beatings, burnings, starvation, persecution, slavery-, but Zidane steeled himself for the oncoming assault, readying the light which, for him, was his last connection to the true world.

Sometimes, during the torture, he began to forget that it wasn't real as the demon Remembrance worked its vast power upon him, searing his body and soul with blackest hatred and flame, but Zidane, as he felt the memories seap out of his mind like wet sand out of a child's hands, grasped painfully at the everpresent beacon bright light, holding back the tide of darkness. There then appeared a torture unique and ghatly in a field all its own. It was the burning village that Zidane

had destroyed. Seeing it brought shooting pain all throughout his soul, but he reminded himself that this was all just an illusion, though it was so horrifingly and painfully real that it was sometimes hard to believe. 

Garnet, Beatrix, Steiner, Eiko, Quina, Amarant, Regent Cid, Vivi, they all appeared in his dream. 

"Come on, Zidane, let's play!" Eiko pleaded in her shrill, childish voice.

 "Zidane, come back..." Cid said. As Zidane was screaming to warn him, a great claw came down upon the ruler of Lindbulm, crushing the defenseless old man and bringing forth a river of deep red blood. The creature brought its hand up, and splayed across it was the remains of the proud ruler, in a grotesque caricature of what they had once been. Zidane felt tears fall freely down his face as he saw the demon's claw crush the small, gentle, intelligent boy Vivi. Zidane screamed even more as he thought of all the great things he had done with Vivi, what a good friendship they had created together. The demon, again and again, massacred his friends. First Cid, then the gentle boy Vivi, undeserving of such a terrible death, then poor, ignorant Quina , then, of all the injustices, why did Eiko have to die?...

Zidane watched in horror, screaming, as the monster killed them all until only one was left alive. Garnet, covered in the gore of her comrades, pleaded for Zidane to save her. The Genome, struggling to break free of his paralysis, watched the hand slowly come down upon her, but just as her crying was to be silenced forever, he jumped over her in an attempt to protect the woman.

The claw faltered, and then, all at once, fell into the ground, disintegrating quietly. A demonic roar permeated Zidane's dreamland, and reality began to snap apart like paper being torn to shreds. Through it all, Zidane gripped Garnet in a tight embrace, protecting her from the demons of his mind as the village continued to burn and his hallucination ended.

  
The End

Notes: Before I sent this out to my friends Luna and Kingpin, this was a pretty crappy story. I got some really great advice from them.

Also special thanks to Law for being beta reader for some of my other stuff, and Tiffy for moral support.

And thanks to the reviewers too.

I know that authors usually put this kind of thing at the very end of the story, but rest assured, this tale isn't nearly over yet.


	6. Recovery and Damnation

Remembrance "Hm. The fool resisted my assault. A pity. It would have been much more entertaining to just watch him slowly go insane and destroy his friends and himself in the process." Kuja whispered softly to himself, rubbing the artifact which he had used to warp Zidane's memory.   
  
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"Garnet!" Zidane shouted, happy beyond belief, as he awoke and saw her, a beautiful butterfly amidst the gout of locusts. "Zidane, you're awake!" Garnet, too, shouted. Inside her a swirl of emotions flew. Should she be mad? Happy? Concerned? Questioning?, but as Zidane's arms flew around her in an expression of sheer joy, she could respond with nothing but happiness to see him.   
  
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Later, they discussed what Zidane had done. So far, Zidane had refused to open up, but that was because, perhaps, he felt uncomfortable surrounded by soldiers. Now he was spouting tales of his experience freely, letting Garnet help him hold the burden of pain and sorrow. He described it with such vivid detail that sometimes Garnet told him to stop, as she felt Zidane's terror and confusion as he fell into the black pit of insanity. Then he got to the part where he had fell upon the village, slaughtering its innocent inhabitants, and his voice trailed off. He became suddenly silent, and looked away from Garnet, thinking. "Zidane, it's okay. It wasn't your fault..." "I know it wasn't, but if I had just... If I had just resisted the false memories, if I could have kept my sanity, if... if I hadn't been so weak, maybe those people would still be alive." Garnet looked away and was silent, too.   
  
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The Pluto Knights loafed around the desert, leading the search for Fratley, as well as his lover, Freya, who had also left for reasons unknown to them. "A sandstorm's about to pick up" cautioned Beatrix, who had decided to stay in the desert to look for her comrades. "Yes, I know. But what can we do about it? We weren't left any supplies by her Majesty the Queen" Steiner replied, having been relatively silent throughout the journey except for a few odd complaints about sand in his boots.   
  
The sandstorm began around an hour later. Steiner's troupe of soldiers ran about even more aimlessly than before, unable to see anything. One of the knights felt a strange sensation around his feet, but passed it off for some stray rocks having stumbled their way into his shoes.   
  
A deadly mistake.   
  
The cadre of warriors watched in paralyzed horror as the screaming soldier was dragged mercilessly under the churning sand, as well as several of his comrades. A few knights grabbed onto their friends' hands as they fell, but they, too, were dragged into the whirpool of killing sand. Most of the knights let go of their friends' hands when they saw shining flashes of metal in the forsaken sand, and gouts of blood erupting from the spiral and streaking the sand. Those that did not were rended by the creature under the sand as well.   
  
Throughout the experience a strange, maniacal laughter pervaded the arid desert air, mingling with the shrill screams of the dying.   
  
End.   
  
Notes:Well, I like this chapter. Nice and gory :P Also something of a cliffhanger, you know?   
  
Stay tuned for chapter 7! 


	7. The Bloodbath

Remembrance   
  
As Beatrix fell slowly into the hole, angry thoughts raged through her battered head even as the sand got into her hair and began to suffocate her. Then above her an unlikely angel of mercy appeared. Steiner's determined, unflinching, uncomplaining face appeared above her, and the lady warrior saw his muscles bulge as he pulled her furiously out of the hole. Slowly, however, he began to lose ground. Together they plunged deep into the Earth, surrounded by morbid cries as their companions died gruesome deaths.   
  
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Zorn slowly turned the secret wheel of ancient wood. All of a sudden, a loud SCREEEEEEEETCH noise prompted a swift "Shut up, you!" from his clownish comrade. "You shut up!" Zorn volleyed back swiftly. As Zorn continued to turn the wheel, a nearby bookshelf turned slowly, revealing a dark passage into Alexandria Castle's catacombs.   
  
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Kuja combed his shining silver hair as the moon's dark lights slipped into the room. He waved a hand and the small flicker of light was extinguished. He had become adverse to the light as soon as he had gotten the staff, and it had soon metamorphed into a deep hatred of the sun. He was relatively sure that the light would not harm it, he simply enjoyed it in the deep darkness. The cold, damp catacombs felt so comfortable to him....   
  
His meditation was interrupted by the idiotic jesters. "Master, what do you want?" Zorn asked, followed by a quick "What do you want, Master?" from his partner. "I need..." Kuja began. He stared at the two clowns silently for a moment. "I would like you to come over here..."   
  
The clowns, faces painted gleefully with bright colors, stepped forward, unafraid of their master.   
  
Their screams were smothered by Kuja's wicked bloodstained claws...   
  
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Zorn walked in silence through the darkness. He didn't know where he was, didn't know where his best friend was, and could not speak for some reason. As he occasionally bumped into a hard, cold wall, he assumed that the place was a maze.   
  
Suddenly, during his contemplation, he felt the floor drop. The jester fell for what seemed like hours, then unceremoniously slammed into the ground with a great crack of bone. The clown groaned and looked for a way out of the predicament. However, he sensed that he was not alone in the large hole. A huge spray of acid flew into his eyes, blinding him and bringing him to the ground, rubbing his eyes furiously in intense pain. Then he felt himself rising slowly. The clown heard Kuja's voice. "Game Over..." Kuja said softly, as he again sunk his claws into Zorn's neck, now purposely aiming for the windpipe, as he had before aimed purposely at the vocal cords. The jester kicked and screamed as Kuja slowly crushed his windpipe and Zorn hoped for death. However, Death did not come to claim Zorn in his icy claws immediately. Kuja clawed insanely at his victim for minutes, then became bored of this paltry attempt at amusement and mercifully ended the clown's life, the floor stained with dirty blood. The psychotically powerful man kicked Zorn's crimson corpse into the pit, and allowed the monsters living in Alexandria sewer's deepest depths to devour the mangled remains...   
  
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Steiner and Beatrix's swift blades worked in tandem to slay the unseen enemies under the sand. Every time they slayed a creature who was holding them down to the sand and sucking them into some unkown realm of horror, two took its place. They, after untold amounts of time fighting the enemies, had figured out that the sand creatures had some kind of sense, able to tell the warm body heat of the creatures tightly entombed in the sand from the cold grains of rock surrounding them.   
  
The monsters suddenly began to swell hugely in numbers, creating a massive frenzy, throwing sand left and right. The sand was filled with the crimson blood as the monsters cannibalized each other in a crazy fit of insanity, competing for a meal of human flesh. "Steiner... if we don't make it through this, I just want you to know that I..." Beatrix said, but just as she was about to admit her deepest feelings, the sand below them gave way, and she and Steiner were flung to the ground below the sand. The remaining sandmen were dazed, and easy picking for Steiner's heavy blade and Beatrix's quick slashes. "Well," Steiner stated solemnly, staring at the blank, featureless walls and the slowly falling sand, "It would appear this is the end for us, comrade. It has been an honor to work with you."   
  
The two brave knights accepted their fates and bowed their heads to each other silently.   
  
End of Chapter 7   
  
Notes:Yeah, yeah, hope you liked it ^_^ I don't know, should I end this soon or should I dream up more plot to supplement it? 


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